Cafe traverse rod



Dec. 31, 1968 K. M. JOHNSON 3,419,065

CAFE TRAVERSE ROD Filed April 26. 1966 INVENTOR. KENNETH M. JOHNSON ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,419,065 CAFE TRAVERSE ROD Kenneth M. Johnson, Kensington, Conn., assignor to The Stanley Works, New Britain, Conn., a corporation of Qonnecticut Filed Apr. 26, 1966, Ser. No. 545,380 7 Claims. (Cl. 160345) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A cafe traverse rod having a cylindrical front wall and a longitudinally slotted vertical back Wall with a plurality of curved ring glides disposed in non-concentric and nontouching relationship with the front wall of the rod and the upper free end thereof disposed to the rear of and below the top of the rod giving the appearance of a conventional cafe traverse rod. The glides have low friction slides mounted in the longitudinal slot and provide smooth nonwedging sliding action during the longitudinal manipulation of the draperies. Integral drapery hangers on the ring glides are vertically aligned with the rear wall with the curve-d portion of the glides extending rearwardly thereof to carry out the conventional cafe rod motif. A reversely bent integral portion of the ring glides connect the lower end of the ring gliden to the slides. Master carriers having plastic slides provided with a longitudinal slot through which the pull cord is adjustably threaded are provided with an integrally formed rearwardly projecting catch bridging the slot. The catch is connected to each slide by a necked down portion to form a breakaway section adapted-to break away to remove the catch for converting the rod for one way operation without rethreading the cord.

This invention relates to cafe traverse rod assemblies for supporting a flexible, downwardly depending panel and more particularly concerns pull cord operated cafe traverse rod assemblies formed with channels to receive glides for supporting such panels or draperies.

One of the objects of this invention is to provide a cafe traverse rod assembly which is readily field convertible for ditferent applications and installations. Included in this object is the provision of such a rod assembly, the components of which can be inexpensively and easily fabricated and assembled in the varying arrangements required for the different installations.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved ring glide for cafe rods. Included in this object is the provision of such a glide which is nonconcentrically disposed in noncontacting relation with the cafe rod.

Still another object of this invention is to provide an improved ring glide for supporting flexible panels or drapes having improved stability for maintaining the ring lide perpendicular to the cafe rod and for sliding smoothly along the channel of the rod.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved glide stop arrangement for the ends of the cafe rod.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an improved mounting arrangement for the pulley housing.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangements of parts which is exemplified in the construction hereafter set forth, and the scope of the invention is indicated in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a rear view of a cafe traverse rod assembly made according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

3,4l9,%5 Patented Dec. 31, 1968 "ice FIG. 3 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view of the ring glide structure taken along line 33 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a rear view of the structure of BIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a top view of the slide of the master carrier of the assembly;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line 6-6 of FIG. 5; and

FIG. 7 is a bottom view of the structure of FIG. 6.

Referring now to the drawings in which like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several VieWs, there is shown in FIG. 1 a preferred embodiment of the invention wherein a cafe traverse rod 10 comprises an inner track 12 and an outer track 14 of similar configuration assembled in telescoping relation so that the traverse rod 10 may be adjusted for varying lengths.

The inner track 12 and the outer track 14 of the cafe traverse rod 10 are each made from a single rectangular strip of sheet metal roll formed into a generally cylindrical cross-sectional configuration having a cylindrical wall 16 extending from a flat horizontal rear wall 18 to a vertical rear wall 20 with a longitudinally extending groove 22 disposed at the top of the rod. The vertical rear wall 20 is formed of a pair of spaced apart coplanar wall sections bordering a longitudinal slot or channel 24.

The master carriers 26, 28 and a suitable number of curved ring glide carriers 30 are shown as being mounted in the longitudinal slot 24 in the rear wall of the traverse rod 10 for sliding movement along its length. A pull cord 32, threaded through the master carriers 26, 28 and the usual pulleys 34 disposed at the ends of the traverse rod 10, is shown as being provided for shifting the master carriers 26, 28 to open and close the draperies supported by the carriers and the glides.

To discuss the construction in greater detail, it will be observed that the curved ring glide carriers 30 which may be formed of any suitable material, as, for example, molded from a ploystyrene, include, a generally circular portion 36 which extends rearwardly beyond the top of the cafe traverse rod 10 and terminates at a level below that of the top of the rod 10. The lower end of the cylindrical portion 36 is connected to the slide by an integrally formed reversely bent straight portion 38 and is provided with a further integrally formed hanger portion 42 containing an aperture 44 for receiving a drapery hook.

An important feature of this invention is the manner in which the ring glide carrier 30 is secured to its slide 40.

As best shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 of the drawing, the reversely bent straight portion 38 of the ring glide carrier 30 terminates in a shoulder 46 and is provided with a forwardly extending projection generally indicated by the numeral 48. The forwardly extending projection 48 is, as best shown in FIG. 4, provided with horizontal wing members 52 and tapered vertical wing members 54. On the ends of the top and bottom surfaces of the horizontal wing members 52 are a pair of protuberances or raised rib portions 56.

The slide 40 for the glide carrier 30, which is preferably formed of a moldable thermoplastic material characterized by its toughness, limited resiliency, wear resistance, and low friction qualities such as nylon or other thermoplastic or nylon-type material, is provided with a cross-shaped slot 58 dimensioned to receive the vertical and horizontal wing members 52, 54 of projection 48. The slide 40 is further provided with transverse grooves 60 which, as best shown in FIG. 2, receive the edges of the rear vertical wall 20 of the traverse rod 10 to mount the ring glide carriers 30 for movement longitudinally of the slot 24.

The vertical wing members 54 are preferably tapered to have both a diminishing height and width toward the free or forward end of projection 48 and are dimensioned at the larger or rearward end thereof to tightly engage the walls of the vertical slot of the slide 40. The ring portion 36 of the glide carrier 30 and the slide 40 are assembled by inserting the projection 48 into the cross-shaped slot 58 of the slide 40 until the protuberances 56 extend beyond the end wall 62 of the slide 40 to secure the same in position. Because of the limited resiliency of the slide 40, the upper and lower wing portions 54 engage the vertical sides of the cross-shaped slot 58 to be wedged therein, and the opening through which the end of the projection 48 is inserted will expand during assembly to permit the passage of the rib portions 56 and, when assembled, resiliently clamp the same to immovably secure the slide 40 and the curved portion 36 together.

Another feature of the invention resides in the con figuration of the slide 40 and involves the ratio of the length of the grooves 60 relative to the vertical distance between the adjacent bottom walls of the upper and lower grooves 60. I have found that a ratio of the length of the grooves 60 to the vertical distance between the bottoms of the grooves 60 should be at least about 2 /2 to 1 and a ratio of about 3 to l is preferred. Specifically, I have found that where the distance between the bottoms of the grooves 60 is inch, the longitudinal length of the groove 60 should be about /8 inch since, with this construction, the glide will have the vertical stability to hold the ring member glide carrier 30 perpendicular to the rod while at the same time permitting adjacent ring glide carriers 30 to be positioned close together for bunching the drape when it is open. Moreover, this ratio of height to length of the grooves 60 will result in the smooth movement of the glide carriers 30 without jerking since it prevents any effective wedging of the slides 40 in the longitudinal slot or channel 24, and will result in the weight of the draperies on the several ring glide carriers 30 to automatically space the same more uniformly when the draperies are drawn.

As best shown in FIG. 2, another feature of this invention is that the straight portion 38 of the ring glide carrier 30 is reversely bent with respect to its juncture with the curved portion 36 thereof in an nonconcentric and nontouching relationship relative to traverse rod 10. By this construction, coupled with the projection of the free end 37 of the ring glide 30 beyond and below the top of the traverse rod 10, the assembly gives the visual impression that the ring carriers 30 engage the rod despite the fact that they are spaced therefrom in a nontouching relationship. In this manner, the design of the ring glide carriers achieves the desired appearance of a conventional cafe traverse rod without any contacts between the rings and the rod thereby avoiding the marring of the surface of the rod due to rubbing during use and aifording a smoother sliding action of the rings along the rod because the sole engagement of the rod occurs between the slot 24 and the slides 40 which are formed of a smooth bearing material.

The master carriers 26, 28 are identical in design except that they are arranged for left-hand and right-hand operation and include overlapping carrier bars 70, 72 which are secured to the drapery carrier portions 42 by eyelets 74 to carry out the same appearance in the master carrier as is presented by the ring glide carriers 30. This consistency of appearance is enhanced by the use of eyelets 74 which may receive drapery hooks in the same relative location as on the individual ring glide carriers 30.

Referring specifically to FIGS. 5, 6 and 7, the details of the design of the slide 76 of the master carrier are disclosed. The ring glides 30 are secured to the slide 76 of the master carrier in the same manner illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4. The slide 76 is further provided with upper and lower longitudinal slots 78 adapted to be received in the longitudinal channel 24 of the traverse rod 10. The slide 76 is further provided with a transverse groove 80 which is interrupted intermediate its ends by a rearwardly extending projections 82. As best shown in FIG. 6, the

projection 82 has a downwardly depending hook portion 84 and is secured to the upper edge of the slot by a narrow bridging portion 86 for purposes hereinafter more fully described. The throat 88 provided between the hook portion 84 and the lower portion of the slide 76 is provided with a plurality of ridges 90.

The pulleys 34 of the cafe traverse rod 10 are mounted to rotate on shafts 92 in a pulley housing 94. The pulley housing 94 is preferably formed of an extrusion having a pair of depending spaced parallel side portions 96 through which the pulley shafts are mounted and a serpentine laterally extending top portion 98 for mounting the pulley housing in the cafe traverse rod 10. The end of the top portion 98 is preferably curved as indicated at 99 to mate the curved surface of the traverse rod 10. The housing 94 is secured to the traverse rod 10 by a single screw 100 which is preferably positioned directly above the vertical rear wall 20 of the rod 10 where it is concealed from view. The laterally extending portion 99 of the extruded housing 94 extends a substantial distance along the rod 10 as shown in FIG. 1, and due to the curvature of the mating portion of the traverse rod 10, a single screw 100 located at approximately the longitudinal center thereof immovably secures the pulley housing to the traverse rod 10 despite longitudinal forces imposed on the housing resulting from the drawing and opening of the drapes by pull cord 32.

Another feature of the invention is the provision of a simple easily installed and used ring glide carrier two-way stop member 104 which is assembled by the same screw 100 that is used to mount the pulley housing 94. The stop member 104 is formed of a resilient material and straddles the channel 24 of the traverse rod 10 to prevent the normal passing of the slides 40 in either direction. At the same time, the resiliency of the spring stop member 104 permits the necessary manual manipulation thereof to permit the passage of the slides 40 for adding or removing ring glides 30 from the traverse rod 10.

Since the longitudinal slot or channel 24 extends to the ends of the inner and outer rods 12 and 14, respectively, the master carriers 26, 28 and the ring glide carriers 30 may be assembled on the traverse rod by simply inserting them in the ends of the slots past the stops 104. In this connection, because the stop 104 is a two-way stop, one or more ring glide carriers 30 may be mounted between the end cap 106 and the stop 104 to hold one or more folds of the end of the drape in this position during use.

The pull cord 32 may then be threaded through the several pulleys 34 and the slots 80 in the master carrier slides 76 in the usual manner and the position of the master carriers adjusted by the linear adjustment of the pull cord 32 relative to the tapered throat 88 of one of the slides 76 of one of the master carriers. With the pull cord in properly adjusted position, the ridges will provide high stress areas to tightly pinch the pull cord 32 and prevent relative slippage therebetween.

A feature of this invention is the provision of a bridging connection 86 between the projection 82 and the body, of the master slide 76 to positively prevent the inadvertent passage of the rope through the slot 80 of the carrier and obviate this disadvantage of prior designs.

The assembly of the traverse rod 10, as illustrated in FIG. 1 and described above is conventionally completed in the factory to prepare the traverse rod 10 for mounting and use by the consumer for normal two-way operation, that is to say, the manipulation of the pull cord 32 will move both master carriers 26, 28 toward and away from each other by equal amounts.

It is desired, however, to provide for the field conversion of the traverse rod 10 for one-way operation as, for example, where a pair of windows span the corner of a room. The design of the cafe traverse rod assembly of this invention and its components facilitates such a field conversion. Such a conversion may readily be accomplished by lengthening the track until the inner track 12 and the outer track 14 are separated, removing the right master carrier 28 through the separated end of the slot or channel 24. In removing the master carrier 28, the pull cord 32 may be unthreaded from the master carrier 28 by breaking off the projection 82 of the slide 76 which may readily be accomplished because of the limited bridging connection 86 between the top edge thereof and the body of slide 76. The pull cord thus remains threaded in the rod for oneway operation which utilizes only a single master carrier 26. Ring glide carriers 30 mounted in the inner track 12 may be removed from the right-hand end of the traverse rod as viewed in FIG. 1 by removing the right end cap 106 or in the same manner as the master carrier 28 and may be reinstalled in the left-hand end of the rod by removing the left-hand cap 106 and raising the left-hand stop member 104.

To convert the rod for opposite hand operation, the lefthand master carrier 26 is removed in the same general manner as referred to above for the right-hand master carrier 28 by the separation of inner track 12 and outer track 14. In this conversion, however, the projection 82 of master carrier 28 is again broken off to unthread the pull cord 32 and the ends of pull cord 32 unknotted and removed from master carrier 26 and similarly reknotted for attachment to master carrier 28. The loop of the pull cord 32 for manipulation of the master carrier 28 is preferably located at the end of the rod to which the master carrier 23 opens. Accordingly, the loop may be reformed by the simple expedient of pulling a loop by a hook engaging the pull cord 32 between the pulleys 34 at the right end of the rod (as viewed in FIG. 1) until the loop illustrated in FIG. 1 disappears.

Since the right-hand end of the rod as viewed in FIG. 1 will abut the corner wall of the room or the end of a similar rod in a dual corner window installation situation, it is desirable to provide an arrangement whereby the master carrier 26 may carry the drape to the full end of the rod. By providing an additional hole 110 adjacent the ends of the traverse rod where it is normally concealed by the cap members 106, the right-hand pulley housing 94 and stop member 104 may be moved to the end of the rod by removing the screw 100 from its original location and remounting the housing and stop member 104 by passing the screw through the hole 110. The rod 10 is thus prepared for one-way operation.

From the foregoing, it is readily apparent that this invention provides a cafe traverse rod assembly wherein it and its components are readily field convertible from one mode of operation or installation to another and provides a cafe traverse rod which effectively simulates the apparatus of the traditional traverse rod in a pull cord operated design without the disadvantages and undesired features hereinbefore encountered.

As Will be apparent to persons skilled in the art, various modifications and adaptations of the structure above described will become readily apparent without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. A cafe traverse rod assembly having a convex front wall and generally vertical back wall provided with a longitudinal slot, and a plurality of convexly curved ring glides mounted in said longitudinal slot for longitudinal movement along said rod, each of said ring glides comprising an interrupted ring having an upper free end disposed to the rear of and below the top of said rod, said ring glides being disposed in non-concentric and nontouching relationship relative to said rod.

2. A cafe traverse rod assembly as recited in claim 1 wherein the curved ring glides are each provided with a slide for mounting the same for longitudinal movement in said slot and each ring glide includes an reversely bent portion disposed to the rear of the vertical back wall of the rod and integrally connected to the curved ring portion thereof to connect the ring glide to the slide.

3. A cafe traverse rod assembly as recited in claim 3 wherein the ring glides are provided with integrally formed hangers for supporting drapery books, the hangers being disposed substantially in the plane of the vertical back wall.

4. A cafe traverse rod assembly as recited in claim 4 wherein the ratio of the length of the bearing surface of each slide engaging said slot is a minimum of about 2 /2 times the vertical height of said slot to provide stable support to hold the ring glides perpendicular to the rod and to prevent the wedging of the slide in the slot during the longitudinal movement thereof.

5. A cafe traverse rod assembly as recited in claim 1 wherein a resilient stop means is secured to the curved Wall portion of the rod above said slot and includes a downwardly depending portion extending across said slot to provide a positive stop to prevent movement of said ring glides thereby in either direction.

6. A cafe traverse rod assembly as recited in claim 1 including a pulley mounted at each end thereof, a pair of master carriers mounted for longitudinal movement in said slot, a pull cord threaded through said master carriers and said pulleys for the controlled manipulation of the master carriers for two-way operation, said master carriers having a molded plastic slide With a horizontal slot therethrough to receive said pull cord, and a rearwardly extending catch formed integral with said slide and bridging said horizontal slot for adjustably securing the master carriers longitudinally with respect to said pull cord, said catch being secured to the slide by a thin neck portion forming a breakaway section for ready field removal of the catch to convert the rod to one-way operation without rethreading said pull cord.

7. For use with a cafe traverse rod assembly having a pulley mounted at each end and master carriers movable longitudinally of the rod, the improvement wherein each of the master carriers is provided with a plastic slide having a transverse groove interrupted intermediate its ends by a rearwardly extending projection for adjustably fixing the master carrier longitudinally relative to a pull cord threaded through the transverse slot and around the pulleys for the controlled manipulation of the master carriers for two-way operation, said rearwardly extending projection being secured to the slide by a thin necked portion forming a breakaway section to facilitate field removal of the projection to convert the rod to one way operation without requiring the rethreading of the pulley cord.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,576,086 11/1951 Werner et al. -345 X 2,848,734 8/1958 Ault 160-345 X 3,119,442 1/1964 Ford et al 160-345 3,155,148 11/1964 Kenney 160-344 3,157,225 11/1964 Freydberg et al. 160-345 3,192,994 7/1965 Graber et a1 160-345 3,199,142 8/1965 Salzmann et al. 160-345 X 3,293,685 12/1966 Rosenbaum 16-87.6 3,333,622 8/1967 Graber 160-345 3,342,247 9/1967 Graber et al. 160-345 DAVID J. WILLIAMOWSKY, Primary Examiner. PHILIP C. KANNAN, Assistant Examiner. 

